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The Early Word: More Endorsements for Obama

Sen. Barack Obama spoke at a town hall rally at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster, Penn. on Monday. (Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times)

The field of Democratic senators who are undecided (or just keeping quiet) about which colleague they prefer for president will shrink by one today when Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota comes out in support of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

In a statement sent to the Associated Press, Ms. Klobuchar said that Mr. Obama speaks “with a different voice, bringing a new perspective and inspiring a real excitement from the American people.”

She compared him to the late Hubert Humphrey, who served as a senator from Minnesota and as vice president. Obama carried Minnesota by a large margin over rival Hillary Rodham Clinton last month.

As for states with primaries still to be held, The Wall Street Journal says that the seven Democratic House members from North Carolina will probably endorse Senator Obama before their state’s May 6 contest. (One of them, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, has already switched his support to Mr. Obama from John Edwards, who dropped out of the race.)

Helping to drive the endorsements is a fear that the Obama-Clinton contest has grown toxic and threatens the Democratic Party’s chances against Republican John McCain in the fall. […]

New York Sen. Clinton still hopes that by turning in strong performances in the final primaries, she can blunt the momentum of her rival from Illinois and make the case that she is best-positioned to take on Sen. McCain. With Mr. Dean, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Vice President Al Gore and other party leaders remaining neutral, the question is whether the trend of party figures endorsing Sen. Obama will build enough momentum to tip the race.

Bill Clinton, speaking at the California Democratic Party convention in San Jose, had a brief but memorable message for Democrats who are concerned about the deadlocked race: Chill out.

“There is somehow the suggestion that because we are having a vigorous debate about who would be the best president, we are going to weaken this party in the fall,” he said Sunday at the state Democratic Party convention. “Chill out.

“We’re going to win this election if we just chill out and let everybody have their say,” Clinton added.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton drew praise from an unlikely source — Richard Mellon Scaife, the right-wing billionaire who, in the 1990s, “donated $1.8 million to The American Spectator magazine for what became known as the ‘Arkansas Project’ — an unflattering excavation of the Clintons’ personal lives in Arkansas,” Michael Barbaro of The New York Times writes today.

In a striking about-face, Mr. Scaife now says he has changed his mind — at least about one half of the duo.

“I have a very different impression of Hillary Clinton today,” he wrote in an opinion article published Sunday, amid her campaign for president. “And it’s a very favorable one indeed.”

His sudden conversion from fervid Clinton basher to lukewarm Clinton fan occurred after Mrs. Clinton, a Democratic senator from New York, sat down for a 90-minute interview with reporters and editors of The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a newspaper owned by Mr. Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking fortune.

The Politico reports that the Clinton campaign, however, “has been putting off paying hundreds of bills for months — freeing up cash for critical media buys but also earning the campaign a reputation as something of a deadbeat in some small-business circles.”

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee, still hasn’t gotten the big long-time party donors to line up behind him they way they did for President Bush. Mr. McCain hopes to change that this week as he embarks on a personal history tour promoting his military service, Michael Luo and Griff Palmer write in The New York Times.

Well over half of the top fund-raisers for Mr. Bush, who raised a record $274 million for him in the 2004 primary season, stayed on the sidelines through this year’s Republican nominating contests. Others wound up working for Rudolph W. Giuliani, who signed up the most top Bush fund-raisers, and Mitt Romney, who had about the same number as Mr. McCain.

The dearth of Pioneers and Rangers, the elite fund-raisers for Mr. Bush who collected more than $100,000 or $200,000 respectively for his re-election bid in 2004, is illustrative of just how far Mr. McCain has to go to build up his financial operation.

The Washington Post today has an in-depth look at how two presidential candidates — Senators McCain and Obama — worked together (temporarily) on ethics reform.

A year into his tenure on Capitol Hill, Barack Obama (D-Ill.) approached John McCain on the Senate floor to propose the two work together on a lobbying and ethics reform bill. The four-term Arizona Republican, 25 years Obama’s senior, quickly saw a willing apprentice to help shake up the way business was done on Capitol Hill.

“I like him; he’s probably got a great future. We can do some work together,” McCain confided to his top staffer.

Instead, what began as a promising collaboration between two men bent on burnishing their reformist credentials collapsed after barely a week. The McCain-Obama relationship came undone amid charges and countercharges, all aired publicly two years ago in an exchange of stark and angry letters. Obama questioned whether McCain sided with G.O.P. leaders rather than searching for a bipartisan solution; McCain accused Obama of “typical rhetorical gloss” and “self interested partisan posturing” by a newcomer seeking to ingratiate himself with party leaders.

Still don’t feel as though you understand the church Mr. Obama belongs to in Chicago, the Trinity United Church of Christ, well enough? The New Yorker this week takes a long look at the church’s contentious former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and his successor, Rev. Otis Moss III.

Across the street from Trinity’s main entrance is a small building with a sign that says, “St. Matthew Gordon AME Zion.” Its presence, for anyone who notices it, is a reminder of the scrappy little church that Trinity used to be, and of the scrappy little churches all over the city, each harboring dreams of fruitful multiplication. For Wright, black Chicago’s highly competitive religious market was a challenge and a spur; for a different preacher, in a different era, it could be a threat. The media frenzy has obscured, and postponed, the real test facing the church. Bad press does no real harm to a church that relishes an air of opposition, and that relies on cheerful givers, not on mainstream sponsors. (On the contrary, Moss told NPR, the controversy “has brought the entire church together.”) But the next challenge will become increasingly clear. After thirty-six years with Wright at the helm, an idiosyncratic megachurch is trying to change its leadership without changing its identity. Once Wright’s moment in the media spotlight is over, his church will have to figure out how to get along without him.

Mr. Obama attracted a crowd of 22,000 at Penn State University in State College, Pa., on Sunday, prompting an editor of the campus newspaper, The Daily Collegian, to dub the town “Obamaville.”

And then it began…… One new superdelegate today and 7 more about to be announced. Add that to the 8-9 pledged delegate net (4-5 net in TX overall) that Obama gained in the TX caucus this weekend and Hillary is in worse trouble than ever.

This week alone will more than offset an Obama loss in PA no matter how large. No matter what happens for Hillary, she has lost.

Hillary has the right to stay in the contest until the bitter end if she doesn’t care about the good of the party, but any candidate with a conscience would consider the issues at stake ahead of their own political amnbitions.

The honorable thing for her to do, the thing that most any candidate would do in her position, is to respectfully drop out and put her full support behind Barack Obama. For the sake of our country, her supporters should do the same.

“Still don’t feel as though you understand the church Mr. Obama belongs to in Chicago, the Trinity United Church of Christ, well enough? ” –Ariel Alexovich, from news article, above.

Understanding the congregation to which Barack Obama belongs, while important, is less important in assessing Barack Obama’s integrity and leadership abilities than how and when Barack Obama reacted to the fury over Rev. Wright’s controversial racist, anti-American remarks.

There is a huge difference between language in sermons that express the pain and anger felt in the hearts of many African Americans, and other people of color, and language that crosses the line into “hate speech.” Rev. Wright’s “hate speech” had continued for an extended period of time during his association with the Obamas.

It was disingenuous of Barack Obama to claim otherwise.

In addition to this lack of honesty, Barack Obama’s delayed, protracted response to the reverend’s remarks made evident that Barack Obama is not endowed with the kind of J.F.K.-style leadership ability that so many of his highly visible supporters have bestowed upon him .

Barack Obama was not willing to do what was right in the face of great political risk. If he had, he wouldn’t have waited until Philadelphia to denounce Rev. Wright’s “hate speech” — a time when there was greater political risk to remain silent about it than there was to speak out against it. He remained silent when it was to his advantage to do so and he spoke up when it was to his advantage to do so.

This should not go unnoticed. It does not signify moral leadership ability. It signifies cowardice not courage — it was a Profile in Cowardice.

“A year into his tenure on Capitol Hill, Barack Obama (D-Ill.) approached John McCain on the Senate floor to propose the two work together on a lobbying and ethics reform bill(…)[W]hat began as a promising collaboration…collapsed after barely a week…McCain accused Obama of “typical rhetorical gloss” and “self interested partisan posturing” by a newcomer seeking to ingratiate himself with party leaders.”

So McCain tried to work with Obama, but he found Obama was divisive, inexperienced, and only concerned with gaining the favor of party leaders at the expense of passing ethics reform. Hmmm, I can’t imagine why he would think that. There certainly are a lot of people that think Obama is divisive, maybe the advertising slogans aren’t working so well. Just ask all the people who weren’t allowed to vote in Florida and Michigan.

readers want to know more about Clinton’s inability to manage her campaign funds and about her lack of accountability. what does this suggest about how she would potentially manage this country? also, what happened witht the texas delegate count? wasn’t that due yesterday?

For the first time I believe all this will settle down — hopefully the mutual resentments of both candidates can be managed though certainly not by supporters of both who see each campaign as a crusade for one thing or another — In the end, the country needs Democratic leadership at all levels and we should not forget Bush and the trauma he has visited in nearly everything he touched — we need to be unified enough to run these folks out of town.

This is not too much of a surprise about the endorsements; I’ve mentioned this game plan before. Expect the Obama campaign to roll them out in the coming weeks until Pennsylvania. They will basically steamroller over Hillary with endorsement after endorsement, which she can’t counter. My guess is he is saving the big names for right before April 22.

On top of that, this money superiority will be hard for her to beat. By now, y’all have read the Politico reports that vendors are asking Hillary for payment up front. What signal does that send to voters that you can’t handle the finances of your own campaign?! Hillary may want to stay in till the end, but she’s already looking like a weak member of the herd. She’ll soon be culled out and killed for her liver.

You missed a big one from Washington Post on Sunday:
Obama embellished or overstate about the Kennedy’s role in helping his father go abroad to study:

” Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala., a year ago, Sen. Barack Obama traced his “very existence” to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.

The Camelot connection has become part of the mythology surrounding Obama’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After Caroline Kennedy endorsed his candidacy in January, Newsweek commentator Jonathan Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary way in which “history replays itself” and by how “two generations of two families — separated by distance, culture and wealth — can intersect in strange and wonderful ways.”

It is a touching story — but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified.

Contrary to Obama’s claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama’s father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960. …

In his speech commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the Selma civil rights march, Sen. Obama linked his father’s arrival in the United States with the turmoil of the civil rights movement. Although the airlift occurred before John F. Kennedy became president, Obama said that “folks in the White House” around President Kennedy were looking for ways to counter charges of hypocrisy and “win hearts and minds all across the world” at a time when America was “battling communism.”

“So the Kennedys decided ‘we’re going to do an airlift,’ ” Obama continued. ” ‘We’re going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is.’ This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country. He met this woman whose great-great-great-great-grandfather had owned slaves. . . . So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.” …

Obama’s Selma speech offers a very confused chronology of both the Kenya student program and the civil rights movement. Relating the story of how his parents met, Obama said: “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Junior was born. So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama.”

After bloggers pointed out that the Selma bridge protest occurred four years after Obama’s birth, a spokesman explained that the senator was referring to the civil rights movement in general, rather than any one event.

In any case, there is a pattern of embellishment or lack of truthfulness that is now emerging about Obama’s own life story… including his relationship with Pastor Wright, and his Senate record.

Even as he calls for Democrats to “chill out”, Bill Clinton distorts the reasons for their dismay. It is not a “vigorous debate” that people are opposed to, but the lies, smears, and venom coming out of the Clinton campaign. The Clinton machine has stopped at nothing to bring down Senator Obama, and its penchant for secrecy and distortion resurrects Karl Rove’s ethically-challenged manipulations.

For a vigorous debate, let’s have those tax returns, earmark requests, and donor lists.

And it’s no surprise that right-winger Richard Mellon Scaife is now complimenting Hillary Clinton, just as Grover Norquist has said that the “Clinton administration wasn’t so bad” and Rush Limbaugh has encouraged Republicans to vote for Hillary. The neocons see that Obama is taking the country by storm, and his momentum will quickly overtake McCain as it has the Clintons.

It’s time for HRC to look for some face saving exit formula else face the inevitable.Her obstinance could only mean ‘slow bleed’ of the party’s unity and will also reflect poorly on the super delegates abilty to save the party.

What about the Texas conventions in the weekend? Do you intend to report on it at all?

By the way, I saw you finally adjusted your democratic results map to account for the non-contests in Florida and Michigan (better late than never). What about adjusting it for Obama’s victory in Texas now?

Democrats NEED Clinton to stay in the race. OBAMA IS UNELECTABLE IN GENERAL ELECTION. “Obama marched with Farrakhan”Obama’s Pastor Slurs Italians in Latest Magazine (CNSNews.com) Wright continues his Obama supported attacks on non-blacks now slurring Italians in issue of Trumpet Newsmag. Wright states, Jesus enemies had their opinion, Italians looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans, and Jesus death on a cross was a public lynching Italian style! This government runs everything from the White House to the schoolhouse, from the Capitol to the KKKlan of white supremacy who is clearly in charge. Every issue published Wright’s rant against white people in which he covers a world that is controlled by white supremacy, a country that’s on its way to hell in a hand basket because of lying politicians, in a culture that still thinks ‘white is right! He said young African-American Christians are more concerned about ‘bling bling’ than about freeing their minds and still Obama says I could no more disown him than I could disown the black community. According to his federal income tax return for 2006, Obama gave the Trinity United church $22,500 in contributions. Trumpet Newsmagazine started 80s, Wright is CEO and Wright’s daughter, Jeri Wright, is the publisher. Requests for comments Obama camp of course not answered. Trumpet Nov/Dec edition, featured Louis Farrakhan, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement “Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Trumpeter” award. Farrakhan has called Judaism a “gutter religion” and said Jews are “bloodsuckers. Many of the biased cable news pundits try to make viewers believe Obama’s speech limited damage of Wright controversy, but the general election will show voters strongly disagree, especially non-black voters. Obama refuses to explain to the public why he would have someone as such a close spiritual advisor and mentor and why he would expose two young daughters to such hatefulness against fellow Americans. The problem Wright’s comments are not theological views, but political statements. This is a serious issue for Obama in general election. As with each new utterance on the topic of Reverend Wright, Barack Obama confirms his own moral obliviousness and he seems to have disdain for those who are troubled by his own unwillingness to break with Wright, even worse Obama still insists Wright is a brilliant man, So brilliant, apparently, that he has uncovered the plot by white America to kill African Americans, so insightful to perceive the 9/11 attacks caused by American terrorism and his discerning observation Israel is a “dirty” word, and still in Obama’s eyes, Wright is brilliant. This, we are told by biased cable news pundits like CNN Obamaphiles, is not supposed to affect voters’ view of Obama’s judgment. Perhaps voters are embarrassed to tell pollsters they are privately offended. General election Republicans as well as independents and democrats are irked by this moral obtuseness even though media like CNN or Hardball cover it up with bogus Clinton attacks.

Looks like the majority of Edwards supporters are breaking for Obama. Sure, perhaps that is happening organically as both men embraced the ‘change’ message. But could a more simple explanation be at work? Could Edwards himself be directing his delegates to go for Obama with his own endorsement to be announced at a critical and dramatic moment?

I wouldn’t be surprised.

BTW, all you people who think Hillary has a chance in 2012, you might as well give it up. Her time, including her supposed fundraising machine, is over. In 2012, it’ll either be re-election for Obama, or if things go badly, watch for Edwards to take the frontrunner status.

Don’t forget to mention that over the weekend, Texas did indeed finalize their caucus delegate count and Obama came out on top 38 to Hillary’s 29. This was the same total they estimated the day after the primary, before Hillary’s lawyers protested.

Which means that in the delegate race, he came out of Texas with a 5 delegate lead.

Sir, this may have begun as something resembling a “debate”, but it is now little more than a means of delaying the inevitable while your candidate’s campaign expends all of their energy manufacturing increasingly pathetic arguments for why their rival should not win the nomination instead of working to produce substantive and qualitative evidence that would help to disprove the notion that their own candidate would make an appalling leader of people.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…